E3 2018: Why Kingdom Hearts 3 Was Delayed Until 2019

A few months ago, Square Enix announced that Kingdom Hearts 3 would have been out in the calendar year of 2018. Well now we know this is not the case as the game will now be coming out in January 2019. The game’s director, Tetsuya Nomura, commented on IGN why the game was delayed in the first place.

He said the following about the game’s delay: “The timing of release that we were actually looking at, we were told by many people, including hardware manufacturers, marketing teams, sales teams that it just wasn’t a good timing in the year. …For Kingdom Hearts 3, the [Square Enix] western offices had requested to release the game as simultaneously as much as possible between Japan and America, so we were no longer able to just think about Japanese issues and retail situation“.

Square Enix may had made a smart move delaying the game as Fall 2018 is already stacked with many AAA titles already. Some of the big games coming out in Fall 2018 include the likes of Red Dead Redemption, Fallout 76, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and more.

In related news, Nomura told Game Informer that he is very interested in making DLC for Kingdom Hearts 3. He wants people to continue playing the game ever after launch. That said, he hasn’t decided on it yet and the game won’t have a Season Pass. Maybe it’s something Square Enix will revisit in the near future.